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https://mustsharenews.com/singaporean-bribe-quarantine/ Singaporean Company Director Entering Malaysia Under RGL Arrested After Trying To Bribe Officers Malaysia is currently grappling with a third wave of Covid-19 cases since the start of Oct. Daily new cases have set a new record high, from over 800 to yesterday’s staggering 1,228 total. Given the gravity of the crisis, health and security measures have to be strictly enforced to keep the virus under control. This rule, however, was seemingly lost on a 43-year-old Singaporean entering Malaysia recently. He offered a S$33 (RM100) bribe to Malaysian officers in hopes of skipping quarantine. According to Malaysian English daily New Straits Times, the 43-year-old Singaporean company director was entering Malaysia yesterday (24 Oct) under the Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL) arrangement. Under this scheme, essential business and official travellers can travel between Malaysia and Singapore. The Singaporean, however, wanted to skip quarantine. He offered a Johor immigration officer a S$33 (RM100) bribe instead. At 3.50pm the same day, he was then arrested at the Johor Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) office. He will be remanded for 5 days.

https://www.todayonline.com/world/malaysian-anti-graft-agency-arrests-former-finance-minister-guan-eng-over-penang-tunnel Najib 1mdb case sort of settled.. Now Malaysia former finance minister Guan Eng got arrested for corruption over the Penang undersea tunnel project.

HR manager in Hyflux subsidiary charged with corruption source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/hr-manager-in-hyflux-subsidiary-charged-with-corruption?xtor=CS3-18&utm_source=STiPhone&utm_medium=share&utm_term=2020-06-03 14%3A06%3A20 SINGAPORE - The human resource manager of a Hyflux subsidiary was charged with corruption on Wednesday (June 3). Khoo Chen Ee, 36, a manager in Hydrochem (S), is accused of receiving or agreeing to receive about $7,000 in "rewards" on three occasions between August and December 2018 from the director of Leeds HR Solution, Mr Elumalai Selvakumar. Hydrochem is the predecessor of Hyflux. It was set up by Hyflux founder Olivia Lum in 1989 and became a wholly-owned subsidiary when Hyflux was incorporated in 2000 ahead of its public listing. The beleaguered water treatment firm is currently under criminal investigation for suspected false and misleading statements, as well as non-compliance with accounting standards. Khoo, a permanent resident, said in court on Wednesday that he intends to plead guilty. He will be back in court on June 26. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) did not say whether Mr Elumalai is facing any corruption charge, but it warned that businesses should have a level playing field to advance their interests and engage in honest competition. "Individuals who resort to corrupt means to advance business interests will have to face the full consequences of the law," it said in a statement. Those convicted of a corruption offence can be fined up to $100,000 or sentenced to jail of up to five years or both.

Muis rebuts allegations of corruption in its halal certification process source: https://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/muis-rebuts-allegations-of-corruption-in-its-halal-certification-process?xtor=CS3-18&utm_source=STiPhone&utm_medium=share&utm_term=2020-04-27 8%3A04%3A53 SINGAPORE - The Islamic Religious Council of Singapore (Muis) has rebutted allegations by a foreign news site that its halal certification process is corrupt, saying that it places utmost priority in ensuring the integrity of its system. An article published last Wednesday (April 22) by Hong Kong-based outlet Asia Sentinel alleged that the council shows "favouritism" in its recognition of foreign halal certification bodies (FCBs). Asia Sentinel had also alleged that the assistant director of the council's Halal Certification Strategic Unit Munir Hussain is currently being investigated for corruption by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB), based on evidence that it had supposedly provided. When approached about the matter, a CPIB spokesman told The Straits Times on Sunday that it would not confirm or deny if any individuals are being investigated for corruption, due to confidentiality issues. FCBs are organisations Muis deems to have similar standards to its own halal certification system, and whose products imported here are certified as halal, or fit for the consumption of Muslims here. These organisations can earn thousands of dollars monthly by selling exported products to Singapore. In a statement on Saturday, the council said: "While Muis recognises that FCBs operate in different social, religious and legal contexts from Singapore, Muis only recognises those who are able to demonstrate that they adhere to similar standards adopted by Muis, as well as the clearly stipulated terms and conditions for recognition. "This includes organisational governance and competence as well as compatibility in religious standards and guidelines." It added that Muis manages the process of halal certification here to the highest standards of governance, and that its processes are aligned with international standards. The council received the ISO 17065 certification for entities certifying products, processes and services from the International Organisation for Standardisation two years ago. Asia Sentinel alleged that Mr Munir had caused Muis' delisting of a certifying body in Australia as an FCB. It did not specify how this was done. The article, which has been reproduced on other outlets like news site Halal Focus, also said that Mr Munir had interfered with and undermined the Australian body's attempt to be re-certified as an FCB. This was supposedly done by actions like divulging its sensitive information to a competitor, and forcing it to hire certain staff members. Muis said that key decisions on halal certification are not made by one person, but by an independent panel. ST understands that this panel is made up of internal members of Muis management who are not involved in any stages of processing the application for halal certification, and that the halal unit collates information and makes recommendations. In its statement on Saturday, the council said that there are currently 74 Muis-certified FCBs, and Muis has removed the FCB recognition status of 10 organisations which did not meet its requirements over the last 10 years. FCBs must have an adequate halal management process as well as a competent legal Islamic advisory board which is responsible for religious advice in halal certification, added the council. Muis said that the allegations made against it are "extremely serious" and it is currently investigating the issue. It is also considering taking action against the publishers of the article. The council encouraged members of the public not to circulate unverified claims, and that they should approach the proper authorities if they have any doubts.

https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/technology/infosys-investigates-alleged-unethical-practices-by-top-officials INFOSYS Ltd said it was investigating whistleblower claims accusing its top two executives of "unethical practices" to boost short-term profit, sending its shares to their worst intraday fall in over six years. The allegations were part of a letter dated Sept 20, seen by Reuters, which said chief executive officer Salil Parekh and chief financial officer Nilanjan Roy engaged in forced revenue recognition from large contracts and did not adhere to accounting standards. Chairman Nandan Nilekani said in a statement on Tuesday that India's No2 software services exporter placed the complaints before the audit committee on Oct 10, and before the non-executive members of the board on Oct 11. **** Looks like financial irregularities will result in a slap on the wrist and a small fine. No one ever goes to jail for this if agree to settle most times. Bengaluru: Former Cognizant COO Sridhar Thiruvengadam has agreed to pay a civil penalty of $50,000 following a Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) order, which found that four company executives, including the former, authorised a bribe payment in a video-conference, which violated the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The case relates to Cognizant’s 2.7-million-sqft KITS campus on Old Mahabalipuram Road in Chennai that planned to employ 17,500 people. A senior government official of Tamil Nadu demanded a $2-million bribe from the construction firm responsible for the campus. The bribery exposed Cognizant to civil and criminal liability with the company paying $25 million in penalties as well as incurring $79 million more in costs related to its internal investigation. The SEC order said Thiruvengadam devised a scheme to cover it up in the company’s books. Thiruvengadam was Cognizant’s COO from late 2013 until he was placed on administrative leave in late 2016. Cognizant accepted Thiruvengadam’s resignation last year. The SEC order states that Thiruvengadam later helped to conceal the payment by signing false sub-certifications. It found that Thiruvengadam violated the FCPA’s internal accounting controls and record-keeping provisions. “Without admitting or denying the findings, Thiruvengadam agreed to pay a civil penalty of $50,000,” the order said. A lawsuit filed by a group of investors on July 27 had put the spotlight on two of its former top executives — former president Gordon Coburn and former chief legal officer Steven E Schwartz. Coburn and Schwartz channelled payments to L&T, the construction company responsible for the KITS campus. The lawsuit alleged that to disguise Cognizant’s repayment to L&T of the bribes the latter paid to government officials, Schwartz and Coburn agreed that L&T would submit many fraudulent change order requests at the end of the project totalling $2 million. TOI has seen a copy of the order that said Cognizant engaged the contracting firm to build the facility and obtain all necessary government permits.

Army tpt officer

‘Biggest bribery scandal’: US, UK, Australia launch probe into mass oil industry corruption https://www.rt.com/news/337961-unaoil-corruption-scandal-investigation/ Among the biggest names implicated are Samsung; Hyundai; US weapons corporation Halliburton and its former subsidiary Kellogg, Brown & Root; Texas firm National Oilwell Varco; Singapore conglomerate Keppel; Norway’s Aker Kvaerner; Turkish joint venture GATE; and Italian oil giant Eni.

See this: http://www.straitstimes.com/news/singapore/courts-crime/story/ex-ntuc-president-and-mp-phey-yew-kok-how-the-case-unfolded-201506#xtor=CS1-10 After he run road for 35 years, now surrenders at age 81. My guess is that he probably as a severe illness and wants free medical treatment.

SHANGHAI—The former head of China’s biggest oil company went on trial Monday, marking the most senior-level prosecution of a Communist Party official since the country’s anticorruption drive began two years ago. Jiang Jiemin, former chairman of China National Petroleum Corp. who briefly ran the government agency that manages state-owned assets, appeared Monday morning in the Intermediate People’s Court in the central city of Hanjiang, according to information published online by the court. The court said Mr. Jiang faces charges related to taking bribes, holding a large amount of property that came from unidentified sources and abusing power while serving as an executive of a state-run company. The court didn’t identify the company or provide further details. In its brief morning release, the court said Mr. Jiang entered the courtroom with a lawyer who wasn’t immediately identified. Mr. Jiang hasn’t commented publicly or through a lawyer since he was detained 19 months ago. The party’s announcement in September 2013 that Mr. Jiang was suspected of severe disciplinary violations—a catchphrase for corruption—marked the downfall of a powerful party official. Mr. Jiang was later ejected from the party and formally charged with criminal acts. His court appearance Monday was his first during this period. The case is important in part for Mr. Jiang’s ties to a more senior party official who has also been ensnared in the anticorruption effort, former Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang. Mr. Zhou, who in recent weeks was charged with corruption, had served as the oil company’s chairman, and he and Mr. Jiang worked together at the company. Mr. Zhou is expected to go on trial in the coming months. Though charges against Mr. Jiang had previously been announced, the date of his trial had not. The court said the trial is being attended by 76 people in total, including a number of politicians representing the national and regional legislatures and a government advisory body plus media and ordinary citizens. The court didn’t say how long the trial might last. Not Jiang Zhe Min

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/04/michael-vannak-khem-misiewicz-navy-scandal_n_4210621.html " Francis is legendary in military circles in that part of the world, said McKnight, who does not know him personally. He is known for extravagance. His 70,000-foot bungalow in an upscale Singapore neighborhood drew spectators yearly since 2007 to its lavish, outdoor Christmas decorations, which The Straits Times described as rivaling the island city-state's main shopping street with replicas of snowmen, lighted towering trees, and Chinese and Japanese ornaments. "

Wonder whether it is true? http://www.chiangraitimes.com/briton-neil-hartley-recants-his-living-hell-in-a-thai-jail.html PATTAYA – Neil Hartley a British National who was held in a Thai prison for three years, after admitting offenses linked to a pharmaceuticals website selling Viagra and steroids, Neil Hartley, 61, was arrested in November 2011 at a beer bar complex in central Pattaya. He claims a Thai lawyer told him if he pleaded guilty he would be fined – but instead he was thrown in jail for three years. He was advised to admit purchase, concealment and distribution of illegal narcotics, import-export violations, pharmaceutical-license offenses and working without a work permit. Mr Hartley, who was sent home to Heysham on a flight to Manchester last Saturday, said: “There is so much corruption over there. “I went to Thailand to work with a friend, who was running a website exporting pharmaceuticals all over the world. He had been running it for six years. “I only helped with e-mails and orders. I was a scapegoat. The Thai police visited the man who ran the website and demanded thousands of pounds. “When he did not pay them, they arrested me two weeks later, while he was out of the country. “I was on remand for a month, then went to Pattaya Court, and the judge jailed me. There was nothing I could do, I was in chains and leg irons. “The British Embassy did not help me.” Reliving the moment he was sent to prison he said: “It was all men and ladyboys. “I was thrown in a van with around 60 prisoners. The guards would hit people with sticks if they said anything. They are animals. “When I arrived at the prison, Nong Palai, my cell was 10 yards by five yards, with 85 criminals inside, including murderers. There were around 1,500 people in the prison. “It had bars at either end and a concrete floor where we had to sleep. If you wanted bedding you had to pay for it. “There were two British men in when I arrived; they had stolen whiskey from a supermarket. Within a week one was dead, beaten to death.” Neil added: “The ladyboys were kept separately from us. They made a tent out of sheets and would sell sex to the prisoners at weekends so they had money to buy cigarettes. “When my mum sent me money I bought 15 blankets to stitch together to make a makeshift bed, and paid for better food – although it wasn’t much better than what we were getting. I lived on tinned sardines but at least you knew they weren’t contaminated, otherwise you got a chicken’s foot, or cold rice. “They threw us out of our cells from 7am. There was just a yard to go in. I saw a Thai man stabbed with a sharpened iron bar.” At 4pm, Mr Hartley says he and the other prisoners were put back in their humid, stinking cells. He said: “You had to pay for a bed space with cigarettes. There was a hole in the floor for a toilet – shared by all of us.” One doctor visited the prison twice a month, but Neil was unable to get medication at first without a passport as it had been seized. He said: “I thought about ending my life, but just got on with it.” Mr Hartley, who formerly worked at Pines Lakes leisure complex near Carnforth, took up the ‘job’ in Thailand when he was made redundant from Pontins. He is virtually blind in one eye, with untreated cataracts in the other. His tearful 90-year-old mother, who lives in a static caravan in Heysham, said: “He’s the only thing I have in the world – and I’m the only thing he has in the world. “This last three years has been terrible. “He says the bed I have given him was paradise compared to what he is used to. “When I first saw him I walked past him twice, I did not recognize him. He is seven stone.” His friend Peter Rowley, who used to work with him in Carnforth, picked him up from the airport after Thai authorities set him back to Britain on his release. He said: “People need to be told about the corruption over there, it is unbelievable.” A Foreign Office spokesman said: “We are aware of the arrest of a British national
on November 4, 2011, in Pattaya, Thailand and provided consular assistance.”

S$29billion spend on corruption in railway project. Only in China ... Yahoo news: Multi-billion-dollar charges linked to China rail chief A businesswoman linked to China's disgraced railway minister faces charges of illegal business activities worth 180 billion yuan ($29 billion), state-run media said Monday, indicating far vaster industry corruption than previously revealed. Ding Shumiao will face trial in Beijing for bribery and illegal business activities after she "intervened in bidding for dozens of railway projects", the China Daily reported, citing prosecutors. The scale of the charges is larger than anything prosecutors have previously linked to corruption associated with the railway sector in China, where the high-speed network, now the world's longest, has been a flagship development project of the ruling Communist Party. Former railway minister Liu Zhijun was given a suspended death sentence in July for accepting a total of 64.6 million yuan in bribes to help 11 people secure contracts and promotions. The China Daily said Ding was accused of giving Liu more than 49 million yuan and arranging sexual favours for him, while Liu helped 23 businesses recommended by her to win contracts for more than 50 rail projects, the China Daily said. The alleged total in inappropriate activities were equivalent to a quarter of China's entire national railway investment in 2010, it added. Liu was sacked in 2011 after eight years in the post and being celebrated as "father" of China's vastly expanded rail network. In March the railways ministry was disbanded, with its administrative functions handed to the transport ministry and its commercial role given to a new China Railway Corporation. Last week a top rail official Zhang Shuguang was charged with accepting bribes worth 47 million yuan over 11 years, while another senior figure Su Shunhu stood trial for allegedly receiving 24 million yuan in bribes. China's Communist leaders have vowed to crack down on rampant official corruption, which has stoked popular resentment. The anti-corruption campaign has also targeted a former senior economics policymaker, top executives from a major state-owned oil firm and numerous low-ranking officials, but has not yet introduced systematic reforms. link: http://sg.news.yahoo.com/multi-billion-dol...-024618760.html

Malaysia busted smuggling syndicate in 'biggest scandal' involving civil servants 468 195 0 1PRINTEMAIL One of the Customs officers being escorted to the court in Petaling Jaya on Sept 4, 2014. -- PHOTO: THE NEW STRAITS TIMES KUALA LUMPUR - An anti-corruption taskforce in Malaysia has uncovered what it believed could be "the biggest scandal involving civil servants". Investigators remanded 24 members of a syndicate running an intricate network at the Port Klang Free Zone (PKFZ) that is believed to have cost the government RM4 billion (S$1.57 billion) in lost revenue, the New Straits Times reported on Friday. Among those arrested were a state customs director and 11 personnel of various ranks from the customs department, said the newspaper. Twelve others were also arrested, including company owners and lorry drivers. Investigation into the syndicate started in 2011, according to the report. The syndicate allegedly left a long money trail that allowed investigators to blow the lid on their illicit operations. "Their lavish lifestyle was among what gave them away. They couldn't have been more blatant in displaying their ill-gotten wealth," one of the investigators said. Among the things seized were 10 luxury cars, including a Porsche, several Audis and Mercedes, and RM3 million in cash. Investigators have also frozen 200 bank accounts allegedly used by the syndicate's network. "RM1.67 billion worth of cigarettes and alcohol were brought into the country under their watch since 2011... but from that amount, only a total value of RM420 million was declared,'' said Datuk Seri Mohd Shukri Abdull, deputy chief commissioner (Operations) of the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). "Investigations had shown that the goods were brought in from Scotland, Sweden, Indonesia, Thailand, China, India and Cambodia." The commission is looking at making more arrests soon, said the report. The Star newspaper said the smuggled items were being sold in Malaysia as well as in neighbouring countries. The New Straits Times quoted Shukri as saying this could be just the tip of the iceberg as the estimated losses calculated were based on investigations into only 10 of 70 companies that operate in PKFZ. "The Customs Department and the Inland Revenue Board are crunching the numbers to identify exactly how much the government had lost to this syndicate and how it had affected the market trend." Shukri said the syndicate had allowed into the country high quality cigarettes and liquor, kept them at the PKFZ and released the goods after their minimal tax value were declared. The syndicate used cash in their transactions with importers, and had under their payroll, a large number of people, including the port's gatekeepers, he added. The Malay Mail quoted former PKFZ chairman Datuk Lee Hwa Beng as saying the Royal Malaysian Customs Department should not be the only agency in control of the zone as such practices could lead to abuse. "The free zone area is fenced from the entrance and the Customs is in control of the entire area," he said. During his tenure as chairman between 2009 to 2011, all entry points were heavily guarded by the Customs while auxiliary police served as back up. "Security screening was strict that even I, as chairman, was required to register and collect a pass at the checkpoint to get into the area. I feel there is too much control by one party," the website quoted Lee as saying. He described the zone as a "gold mine'' as it functions as a warehouse and storage area for goods brought into the country via Port Klang. "Companies stock their goods there before they are sent out. This gives room for wrongdoings," he said, adding that such situations created an opportunity for illegal activities especially during off-peak hours. http://www.straitstimes.com/news/asia/south-east-asia/story/malaysia-busted-smuggling-syndicate-biggest-scandal-involving-civil-#xtor=CS1-10

https://sg.news.yahoo.com/thai-pm-forced-resign-over-abuse-power-064130824.html

THIS IS A VERY LONG ARTICLE BUT IT IS AN INTERESTING ONE ASIDE FROM SINGAPORE BEING MENTIONED. IN THE early hours of February 20th 2010 Uday Vir Singh, an Indian forestry officer, bluffed his way past a private militia guarding a dusty port called Belekeri. For months suspicious-looking convoys of trucks had been thundering across India to the port’s quays on the country’s west coast, just south of the Goan beach where the super-spy mayhem which opened “The Bourne Supremacy” was filmed. Mr Singh is no more a Jason Bourne than the next entomologist—he has a doctorate on metamorphosis in insects—and the infiltration he mounted with a few colleagues led to no gunplay. But it did uncover a massive scam, with hundreds of officials and politicians in the state of Karnataka in the pockets of an illegal mining mafia that, over five years, had made profits of $2 billion or more shipping illegal iron ore to China. Such scandals have rocked Asia’s third-largest economy in the past decade. A lot of transactions that put public resources into private hands—allocations of radio spectrum, for example, and of credit from state banks—have come under suspicion. Of the ten biggest family firms by sales, seven have faced controversies. The brash new tycoons who came of age during the boom years of 2003-10 are under a cloud, too. Before he became boss of the central bank last year, Raghuram Rajan worried publicly that India could start looking like an oligarchy along the lines seen in Russia: “too many people have got too rich based on their proximity to the government.” In a recent poll 96% of Indians said corruption was holding their country back, and 92% thought it has got worse in the past five years. One senior figure in the ruling Congress party worries about the feeling that “the law for the common people doesn’t apply to the political princelings and industrialists.” In December voters in Delhi’s state elections supported the anti-graft Aam Aadmi Party strongly enough for it to get into power. Its leader, Arvind Kejriwal, held his new job only briefly before resigning to fight the national election taking place in April and May. Narendra Modi, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) candidate for prime minister who is currently ahead in the polls, says he will purge India. That said, critics note that his personal rapport with tycoons, credited for some of the industrial success of his home state of Gujarat, may not make him the most thoroughgoing of purgatives. For his part, the outgoing prime minister, Manmohan Singh, claims history will absolve his administration of its reputation for graft. The leader of the Congress campaign, Rahul Gandhi, a scion of India’s most famous political dynasty, says he is a reformer, though it is hard not to see his family’s secretive habits as part of the problem. India needs its private sector to build roads, factories and cities. But the relationship between companies and the state is broken. Corruption produces bad decisions; concern over corruption produces indecision. Graft does not function, as some claim that it does elsewhere, as an unseemly but expedient market solution to inert bureaucracy, greasing the seized-up wheels of industry. It has put grit in those wheels. Loans to industries with graft problems have infected the largely state-run banking system; at least a tenth of its loans are sour. Inept cronies have messed up vital road and power projects. Mines and other assets lie idle as courts dither over how crooked their owners are. Private paralysis Faced with this mess, private firms have cut investments; a fall in investment from 17% of GDP in 2007 to 11% in 2011 is one reason why GDP growth has slumped to 5%, the lowest level for a decade. And ineffective efforts to deal with corruption seem only to have made things worse. India’s cranky legal system, its overlapping investigative agencies and its raucous media have meant that responses to the problem may have done as much to paralyse business in general as to punish wrongdoers. Few senior people go to jail; but officials fear being accused of malfeasance, so many think the safest course of action is to make no decisions at all. To rumble the iron-ore scam Mr Singh, the forestry officer, first went undercover in a town called Bellary, the hub of illegal iron-ore mining in the state of Karnataka. The task fell to him because many mines come under the remit of the forestry agency, and work on a previous pink-granite scandal had earned him a reputation in the area. A day’s drive north of the gleaming technology campuses of Bangalore, Bellary felt like the wild west. The Reddy family, which had close connections to the state’s BJP-led government, appeared to rule the roost. A businessman who visited a Reddy associate recalls being escorted by men with automatic weapons to a mansion with a Bell helicopter and a collection of 13 cars. “They were like Indian warlords,” he says. Each day up to 2,000 trucks took the ore to the port at Belekeri in convoys as much as 25km (16 miles) long. Accounts and bank details found on computers taken into custody at Belekeri created a trail to 70 families who had bribed officials and politicians effectively enough to cause an “administrative collapse”. Karnataka’s anti-corruption body prepared a 25,000-page report. The affair is now in the hands of the police and the courts. Rumours and rupees Iron ore is a smallish part of the picture, but how small is hard to say; quantifying graft in India is a frustrating affair, and distracting conspiracy theories and innuendo abound. Bankers in Mumbai claim that the rupee, one of the world’s most actively traded currencies, is manipulated by politicians for personal gain. The business interests of the present cabinet—if you believe the rumours—include a real-estate empire in Singapore and an insider-trading ring run by a minister’s son. To try to get to grips with the problem The Economist has interviewed politicians, industrialists, bureaucrats, financiers and investigators. Their views, provided on a basis of anonymity, point to a well-established system of graft, partly linked to political funding. Few people think that anyone important will go to jail, but despite this some reckon that the next decade will be less corrupt than the last one. Petty corruption includes slipping banknotes to the police and to officials to get paperwork done. According to Transparency International, an organisation that tracks corruption, 54% of Indians say they paid a bribe in the last year, compared with 44% in Nigeria and 36% in Indonesia. Jobs with opportunities for extortion are sought after and a slice of the profits funnelled up the ranks. Firms offer “speed money” to avoid red tape. “Everybody pays,” admits an executive at a firm known for its good governance. A billionaire says, “it is hard for any business to be fully compliant…When you are dealing with the tax people or the environmental people the consequences for the business become very severe—they can hold money in escrow or imprison you.” But it is the boom in large-scale rent-seeking—the use of wealth to distort the allocation of resources from which more wealth could be produced—that has opened up a new era of corruption. In the old days graft was almost quaint. Before the liberalisation that began in 1991 firms faced the “licence-permit Raj”, a regime of rules and quotas that was more easily navigated with the help of carefully deployed smallish bribes. Occasionally there were big scandals. In the 1980s allegations that a $50m kickback had been paid on an Indian arms deal by the Swedish firm Bofors engulfed the government of Rajiv Gandhi. But India’s entry into the global economy created unprecedented opportunities for dishonesty. Property became a multi-billion-dollar business governed by officials paid a pittance. The value of mining licences soared along with commodity prices. Privatisations and public-private partnerships became common, and prone to manipulation. At the same time the elite cadre of the civil service, the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), has decayed. A top officer puts the clean and motivated proportion of its 5,000 members at just 10%—and adds that at the other end of the spectrum 15% are “scum”. The Economist has looked at three ways of quantifying the profits from rent-seeking. The first is to tally the money made from scams, based on estimates from officials and investigators. (Our calculation uses realised profits, or the present value of anticipated profits. We use the low end of some official estimates.) The second approach, which is applied more widely in our new index of cronyism (see article), measures the relative performance of billionaires in industries, such as mining and property, that are prone to rent-seeking relative to those in other lines of business (see chart 1). A final method tracks the relative performance of an index of politically linked listed firms constructed by Saurabh Mukherjea of Ambit Capital, a broker (see chart 2). An average of the approaches suggests the gains from rent-seeking over the past decade peaked at about $80 billion. That is equivalent to 7% of the stockmarket’s value today. It is worth noting, though, that the share of GDP for the rent-seeking billionaires and the premium on politically connected firms are no longer what they were in the boom years. Not all of the gains were achieved through corruption. But if one were to assume politicians and officials got an average cut of 5-15%—a rate consistent with the trail investigators have found in the iron-ore and telecoms scams, then total bribes paid would amount to $4 billion-12 billion. Many bribes, like much else in India, can be paid for in cash, which can be deposited at banks using “Benami”, or nominee, accounts, or accounts in servants’ names. Gold is another possibility; there is a lot of it about, with India’s bullion imports since 2002 worth 14% of current GDP. Property deals are also used to launder cash—even legitimate deals often have a cash component. Funnelling funds On big deals the obliging politicians and officials may get a stake in the business. India’s audit agency believes land deals near Delhi Airport involved firms that were fronts for politicians. By using layers of legal shells politicians can be made beneficiaries without being easily traced. Taking the trail offshore can add still more concealment. In an office in Delhi an anti-corruption tsar is looking at a piece of paper. On it is the name of a fixer in Singapore who is active in the Indian city of Hyderabad and who funnels illicit funds offshore. The official says there are about 25-50 such individuals, known as “settlers”, serving India, mainly from Singapore, Dubai and London. The scale of activity is “immense”. By cross-checking India’s trade statistics with those of its trading partners, Global Financial Integrity, a research organisation, estimates that gross illicit outflows from India have averaged $52 billion a year since 2007. One way of transferring bribes offshore is “mis-invoicing”. For example, a firm in India controlled by a politician will buy diamonds or software from a party abroad at inflated prices before importing them. The excess profit booked by that second party, also controlled by the politician, is pocketed outside India—tax-free and with little risk of investigation if it is a shell company domiciled in a free-trade zone such as Dubai. Mr Singh found widespread mis-invoicing in the iron-ore scam. How much Indian money is stashed abroad? India’s tax authorities have a database of offshore-account holders given to them by the German government, but appear to be under political pressure not to release it. “They’re sitting on it,” says the anti-graft tsar in Delhi. The ex-manager of a unit serving Indians at a large Swiss bank says the firm had $10 billion of assets from resident Indians and a market share of 10-20%. The Russian and Far East desks were much busier. (This fits with the finding that Indians buy just 3% of “prime” London property, a popular investment with plutocrats.) The banker adds that India’s big political clans may have been dealt with by a separate wing of the bank. Adding in an estimate for them, he calculates that the offshore assets of Indian residents held in all global banks as between $100 billion and $150 billion. How does that fit with estimates of illicit wealth overseas? The anti-corruption boss says his agency has identified assets of $2.3 billion, mainly held through trails of offshore shell companies and accounts in tax havens, and that his understaffed agency tracks about 5-10% of such activity—suggesting a total pot of $23 billion-45 billion. Bringing it all back home Some of this comes back to India through mis-invoicing. But wealth is also “round tripped” back under the guise of foreign investment. An insight into round-tripping, in this case of legitimate funds, came in a 2012 British legal case involving UBS in London. Its bankers ran a scheme in which $250m of offshore funds belonging to Reliance ADAG, an Indian firm, were invested in one of its subsidiaries in India via a vehicle in Mauritius. The London tribunal judged that this broke Indian rules. (In a 2012 statement Reliance said that no action had been brought against it in London and that the matter had been dealt with and closed by Indian regulators.) Lawyers for a banker involved argued the practice was “widespread”. India’s regulators say they have since cracked down. When the bribes come home they undoubtedly enrich some Indian politicians. A 2008 telecoms scandal saw a minister allocating spectrum on iffy grounds. The government turned a blind eye. “We knew some of the decisions taken by him were blatantly illegal…[and] done to raise large amounts of money,” says another minister of that time who was close to the prime minister. The more pernicious danger is that the political system as a whole depends on the bribes. For one thing they seem to provide a significant source of election funds; for another the big parties increasingly need to court small parties in order to rule, and allowing them to get rich when in power seems to be one of the ways that this is done (it was a factor in the telecoms case). To hold a rally at which Sonia Gandhi, the head of Congress, appears costs up to $330,000. The buses, hats and sound-system all have to be paid for. To run a credible campaign in a seat in a parliamentary election costs between $300,000 and $3m per candidate, depending on the importance of the seat and the competition. Armies of volunteers have to be paid, and booze and SIM cards given out. Add in state and local elections and the total cost of politics in India between 2010 and 2015 for all parties will be $5 billion, calculates the top Congress politician, which would work out as a substantial fraction of the estimated bribe pool. Strict campaign-finance rules mean most of this has to be raised illegally. A third of campaign funds are raised centrally by parties and the rest locally. Parties have arms-length treasurers who act as their bankers. Those handling bribes take a cut for themselves. Illegal party funding is at the heart of corruption. But politicians are in denial, says the Congress bigwig. “Nobody wants to admit that they have taken money. It is a completely hypocritical system.” New laws, for example a Lokpal Act passed in December to create a new anti-graft agency, just add to the huge weight of legislation dating back to the 1980s that is cynically passed and not enforced. There is certainly a lack of will to enforce rules. A second anti-graft boss cheerfully admits that prosecutions take at least a decade; in the past three years only 25 top civil servants have been investigated and none has lost his job. Regulators say that if they act against the interests of industrialists they can get an earful from politicians. But there is a more optimistic view. When it comes to low-level graft, reformers hope that technology can eliminate the middlemen who seek to benefit. Putting train reservations online has removed a lot of opportunities for bribery. Then there are chunks of the economy that are already pretty free of graft, such as consumer goods and the technology business; in the past few years it is largely in those sectors, more than in the rent-seeking ones, that billionaires have made hay. Some institutions are clean, too. They include the central bank and the Supreme Court, which on March 10th introduced rules to speed up trials of politicians. The banking system, despite its bad debts, has not been captured by tycoons as were those in South-East Asia and Russia in the 1990s. In February a chunk of radio spectrum was auctioned off smoothly, a process that makes impropriety harder. And the messy response to a decade of graft, though inefficient, has started to change financial incentives. Sporadic court actions—mining suspended in some areas, some spectrum allocations being cancelled—have made rent-seeking less profitable, and foreign investors have begun to shun such sectors. Ambit’s index of politically linked firms, which did well in the late 2000s, has underperformed badly since. India has only a middling rank on our cronyism index. Perhaps market forces and a backlash from voters will turn the tide. But even if they don’t, citizens like Mr Singh, the insect-expert turned mafia-buster, will fight on. He doesn’t carry a phone lest it betrays his location; he has a bodyguard, and police guard his home. But in an office decorated with posters of plants the ferocity he brought to his fight can still boil over. The iron-ore scam made him feel “so angry that I told myself either you do something or you die,” he says. “What will I be doing in three years’ time? I am going to pursue this. I am going to bring it to a logical end.”

Sun Hung Kai Properties Ltd. (16), Hong Kong’s second-largest developer, said Co-Chairmen Thomas and Raymond Kwok face additional charges in a bribery case involving a former chief secretary. Raymond Kwok faces two more charges including for conspiracy to commit misconduct in a public office and Thomas Kwok faces one additional charge, Sun Hung Kai said today in a statement. The case has not and will not affect the company’s operations, it said. The trial is scheduled to start May 8. Hong Kong’s anti-graft agency opened one of the city’s most high-profile corruption cases in 2012 when it charged the Kwok brothers and two other men for conspiring to provide payments, loans, and property use to Rafael Hui, a former No. 2 official in the city. All five defendants have pleaded not guilty to charges including misconduct in public office and furnishing false information. The brothers will be added to the charge of conspiring, with two other men, to offer advantage to a public servant, Kit Hung, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, said earlier today. Previously, only Hui and the two men were charged with the offense. Sun Hung Kai’s stock slid 0.4 percent in Hong Kong trading as of 1:49 p.m., against a 0.6 percent decline in the benchmark Hang Seng Index. Thomas Kwok has a net worth of $8.2 billion and Raymond Kwok is worth $8.3 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. Sun Hung Kai’s financial services unit last August sued Hui for HK$3.16 million ($407,358) over a loan. Hui was declared bankrupt by the city’s High Court, Radio Television Hong Kong reported in November, citing court proceedings. The case is Hong Kong Special Administrative Region v Rafael Hui, Thomas Kwok, Raymond Kwok, Thomas Chan and Francis Kwan, HCCC98/2013 in Hong Kong’s High Court.

Another one bites the dust... MDA assistant director charged with corruption and forgery An assistant director with the Media Development Authority (MDA) was on Friday charged with multiple counts of corruption and forgery. SINGAPORE: An assistant director with the Media Development Authority (MDA) was on Friday charged with multiple counts of corruption and forgery. Lai Wai Khuen, 37, is accused of obtaining loans totalling S$23,565 from 12 people on 27 occasions. He faces another count of attempting to obtain a loan of S$3,000 without success. Investigations by the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) revealed that Lai allegedly obtained loans from grant applicants as an inducement or reward for facilitating the approval and disbursement of grants. Lai is also accused of forging documents by fraudulently signing off as Thomas Lim, who is a director with the MDA. Lai, who was unrepresented, has indicated that he will plead guilty. If he pleads guilty, the prosecution has indicated it will proceed on seven charges, and take the remaining 24 into consideration. Lai has asked for his case to be adjourned till after the Lunar New Year for him to settle some matters. His police bail of S$20,000 was raised to court bail of S$30,000. Lai will be back in court for a bail review on January 21, and his case has been adjourned to February 17. - CNA/nd (source:http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/mda-assistant-director/957228.html )

anyone read the wanbao? I was quite surprise and also by the ppl getting involve.. What had happen to our Singapore.. Not going to go well with out competitive ranking..

From CNA: http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/sin...1209913/1/.html Former SPH SVP Peter Khoo charged with corruption By Alvina Soh | Posted: 26 June 2012 SINGAPORE: Peter Khoo Chong Meng, former senior vice president of the English and Malay News Division at Singapore Press Holdings (SPH), was on Tuesday charged in court for corruption and criminal breach of trust. Khoo faced eight counts of corruption and two counts of criminal breach of trust. He is accused of taking illegal payments and misappropriating shopping vouchers handled by his editorial projects unit. Khoo was dismissed from SPH in September 2010. The prosecution said it would proceed with two counts of corruption and one count of criminal breach of trust. Dressed in a long blue sleeved shirt, Khoo appeared grim as his charges were read out. He declined to speak to the media. Khoo will be back in court on 10 July. - CNA/wm

If it's chinese new year period, and your customer/contractor gives you a red packet with $$$ inside.. It is considered corruption under the law to accept it?

Ex table tennis president charged with corruption By Julia Ng | Posted: 08 December 2011 1031 hrs SINGAPORE: The ex-president of the Singapore Table Tennis Association (STTA) and former MP Choo Wee Khiang has been charged in court with corruption. The Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) said from 2005 to 2007, it received several anonymous complaints against Choo, alleging that he had charged his personal airfares, expenses, phone bills to the Association and received gifts from Chinese coaches and players. Choo was the STTA at the time of the alleged offences. Acting on the information received, the Bureau conducted an investigation which revealed that in 2005, Choo had received S$1,500 from Liu Zhongze, who was then a national team player, and Luo Jie, who was then an assistant coach of the STTA, in return for giving Liu more opportunities to represent the Association in table tennis tournaments. Investigation also revealed that between 2003 and 2004, Choo had received a total of US$600 on two separate occasions from Shi Mei Sheng, who was then a STTA coach, as a reward to Choo for approving the use of two different training facilities in China. Besides Choo, the former High Performance Manager of STTA Koh Li Ping was also charged on Thursday morning. The Bureau said between 2002 and 2003, Luo Jie, whose work pass only permitted him to work for STTA, provided table tennis training to students for a local secondary school. But the school was unable to pay him for the training provided, which amounted to S$8,400. Luo Jie told Choo and Koh about this. They then allegedly arranged with the principal of the school to engage STTA in a new training arrangement with the intention to use the proceeds received to pay Luo Jie for the outstanding fees. Subsequently, after STTA received the payment from the school, Koh obtained approval from Choo to authorise a payment of S$8,400 to Luo Jie, even though the latter did not provide any training services under the new training arrangement. Choo Wee Khiang was charged with three counts of corruptly accepting gratification under Section 6(a) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, Chapter 241) and one count of criminal breach of trust as a servant, which is an offence under Section 408 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. Koh Li Ping was charged with one count of engaging with Choo Wee Khiang in a conspiracy to commit criminal breach of trust as a servant, an offence under Section 408 read with Section 109 of the Penal Code, Chapter 224. - CNA/ck

my paper Friday, Dec 23, 2011 A Singapore civil servant appeared in court yesterday on 455 charges of cheating the Government of a total of more than $600,000, the authorities and a media report said. The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement that clerical officer Liew Chee Meng was alleged to have forged documents to approve the purchase of gift vouchers for his personal benefit between 2007 and early this year. Subsequent investigations led to the seizure of almost $475,000 worth of goods from the accused, the MHA said. "A civilian clerical officer from the Ministry of Home Affairs...was charged in court today with forgery, cheating, criminal breach of trust and conversion of proceeds of crime," it said. "The offences relate to acts allegedly committed in the course of his employment with the ministry. The total amount involved is $617,087." The MHA said Liew's actions were uncovered in January after an internal audit, following a corruption case involving a senior civil servant with a penchant for Italian supercars. In that case, Koh Seah Wee, formerly a deputy director of information technology at the Singapore Land Authority, was sentenced last month to 22 years in jail for cheating the Government of more than $12 million. Link: http://www.asiaone.com/News/Latest%2BNews/...223-317791.html

High pay doesn't guaranteed anything?

i though the reason why we had to pay high salary is to ensure NO corruption there are so many cases from transport to medical services headache Hospital's ex-deputy director charged with corruption Tan Tock Seng Hospital's ex-deputy director Peh Chew Seng allegedly requested a bribe from a contractor in exchange for help to win a contract. Tue, Nov 22, 2011 AsiaOne SINGAPORE - Tan Tock Seng Hospital's (TTSH's) ex-deputy director Peh Chew Seng allegedly requested a bribe from a contractor in exchange for help to win a contract during his tenure. Court documents state that in February 2009, Peh had asked for an unspecified amount from Executive Director of PBT Engineering Mr Phua Boon Kin, through one of the firm's employees, Mr Sim Keok Soon. In return, Peh allegedly offered his assistance in helping PBT win the contract for the construction of a temporary office for the hospital next to TTSH's main building. Peh is now working as a manager with SMRT. The police initially set a $5,000 bail, which the court increased to $10,000 after Peh's lawyer told the court that his client would be going to Taiwan for a holiday next week. Delete ReplyReply ForwardSpamMovePrint Actions NextPrevious